English, 1829–1896

Miss Sm-th's Party, 1851

ink, graphite on paper

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Sir John Everett Millais was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The group was formed by Millais, William Holman Hunt, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1848 in Millais’s home in London. The three artists had met at the Royal Academy of Arts, where Millais had been admitted years before at the unprecedented age of 11. Millais was later elected a full member of the Royal Academy, and became President of the Academy in 1896. He is best known for his realistic paintings of religious, historical, and genre scenes, often imbued with moral references. Aside from his painting, he was a gifted draftsman and engraver, and produced a large body of studies from everyday life. This drawing of a dinner party is from a sketchbook that was dismantled and reassembled in an album, comprising scenes from social gatherings and figure groups.